Making an appointment with a counselor during registration time will no longer feel like making an appointment to see the president of the United States.

Twenty new part-time counselors have been hired to give students better services so there will be less waiting for a counselor appointment, Dr. Linda Arroyo, counselor, said.

“Some of the counselors are working in our drop-in counseling area while other counselors are going to be doing some of our high school outreach, so they’re working with our school and college relations director,” Arroyo said.

“More drop-in counselors would help ease the counseling office during the busy time when students come in for advice during registration,” Arroyo said.

“More students should be able to at least see a counselor if they could not get a full 30-minute appointment,” she said.

Most of the new counselors have some experience in counseling, Arroyo said.

“We are, for the most part, getting counselors who have counseling experiences at other schools,” Arroyo said. “We are very lucky to have people who have already been doing some part-time counseling.”

Arroyo said that the college feels good about the training the part-time counselors have received.

They are currently shadowing full-time counselors by watching the meetings between counselors and students, she said.

For the first day of training, Arroyo said the part-time counselors went over the college catalog, went over in detail the forms the college uses and did some role playing as well.

“On the second day, we had them in the computer lab; we showed them how to use the staff’s datatell system so they can go in and know how to look at a students’ transcripts,” Arroyo said.

“We showed them how to use ‘Assist.’ It is a really good way to understand which classes would count for which university requirements,” she said.

There is a chance part-time counselors could apply for a full-time counselor position, Arroyo said.

“We have been approved to at least announce that there are two full-time counseling position and a third position for articulation officer,” Arroyo said.

Mary Green, liberal studies major, said more counselors mean more appointments for students.

“My chances to have the opportunity to see a counselor would be much higher,” Green said.

One of the part-time counselors, Nelson Espinola, who specializes in Equal Opportunity Program and Services, hopes to contribute to the students “by simply doing his job.”

Espinola said he knows what transfer students go through and would like to help them.

“Every time I counsel a student, I feel that I want to do as much as I can to help that student succeed, whether academically or personally,” Espinola said.